Amen. Thank you so much, Pastor Lopez. That song goes along very, very well with Matthew Chapter 6. So please turn in your Bible with me to Matthew's Gospel Chapter 6. And we're going to be continuing tonight our series regarding finances, Christian family finances. And I know that there are a number of folks that are missing because of the inclement weather, but I wanted to continue on with the lesson. This will be an important lesson for them, so hopefully they will tune in over Sermon Audio or purchase the CDs, and we will make all of the lesson plans available, all of the lesson outlines that we pass out. Those will be available on the south table in the lobby. Also, for those who do tune into Sermon Audio, if you'll notice on our Sermon Audio site, we are also posting, I think it's under a PDF file. I don't even know what that is, but that's what they call it, some kind of file where you can download the lesson outline and to get that imprinted at your very own computer. So we're making this available to everyone. But Matthew chapter 6, now before I begin reading the scripture, someone will say, Pastor, you know, when you talk about preparedness financially and working through your finances, Some people will view that as unspiritual. They will say that you lack faith. And sometimes they will cite the passage that I'm about to read with you in just a moment. They'll cite that passage and they'll say if you concentrate, on thrift, if you concentrate on foresight, that you're in disobedience to this passage. Now, with that little thought, let's read the passage, and then I'm going to point out how exactly the opposite is true. Matthew 6, verse 25, the words of Jesus, Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for the body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment? Some say, oh, Pastor, there it is right there. Take no thought. The idea of take no thought is not to be worried or filled with anxiety. It doesn't mean you never think about these things. You think every day about putting on clothing. At least all of you do because you're all dressed here. You do take some measure of thought. He's not saying never give it any consideration. But what he is saying is do not worry about it. Do not become overly anxious about it. Do not let it dominate your thinking. Now pause with me for a moment. People who have financial trouble typically allow that trouble to dominate their thinking. It causes them worry and anxiety. Now look back, having said that, look at verse 25 again. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought, worry, anxiety, concern, sleepless nights, for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for the body, what ye shall put on. It's not the life more than meat and the body more than raiment. What is Jesus saying? He's saying do not be overly concerned. Now listen carefully. When someone is in the throes of financial trouble, they are in disobedience to this verse typically because it plays upon their mind. The financial trouble is playing upon their mind. In order to obey this verse, I need to make sure that my finances are straightened out so that I don't have to take any thought. It doesn't become something that dominates my thinking. It is not something that produces anxiety because I have thought it through earlier, planned it out, and it is not something that causes me worry. Verse 26, Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit to his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies, how they grow, they twirl not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like unto one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore, take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be closed? Now listen, that's not to be your primary concern. But it is your primary concern if you're not prepared for it. There are people that actually wonder, Where are we going to get money for the next meal, for the grocery bill? Where are we going to get money for our clothing? It's not necessarily that they don't have the money. They had it, but then they spent it. And so Jesus is saying this is not to dominate our thinking. Is everybody following me on this? It's a little different. It's not promoting the idea of carelessness. Rather, it's promoting the idea of being careful and then walking in faith and being a good steward. Verse 32. After all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Seeking God first. The emphasis of the passage is on priority. The teaching of the passage is that we are not to allow worldly things to dominate our thinking. Concern over survival issues, food, raiment, all of those things that are basic survival issues, those things should not cause us anxiety or anxiousness or serious concern in dominating our thinking. Why? If those things do dominate our thinking, they will tend to push out thoughts of the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Is everybody following me on this? We used to preach, how in the world can I get to the place where I'm not worried about money? That's why you're here tonight. If you have a plan, if you've thought things through, if you have acted as a good steward, all of a sudden money concerns are not a worry because issues are taken care of. Is everybody following me on this? In order to obey Matthew chapter 6, I need to have thought some things through, not worried about them, not stayed up at night over them, but work through some simple plans for stewardship and then I won't have the worries and I can focus my effort and energy on the Kingdom of God. Let me give you the key concept on the top of your lesson outline. Key concept, your monthly cash flow plan, we discussed that last time, will only work if you allocate your money according to pay periods. Now everybody listen carefully and I know this is very basic and for some of you this is kind of a review and you're already doing some of these things. But last week we talked about a budget. I like to call it a cash flow plan. That doesn't have as much of a negative connotation as the word budget. And we discussed that and we gave you the sheets last time, the forms to go home. and come up with a reasonable monthly budget. Now, here's the problem. What a lot of people do is they'll come up with this monthly budget, and they'll say, this is what I'm going to spend, and then they go through the whole month spending all kinds of money, and at the end of it, they add it all up and put it all in the categories, and they're blown away because they spent way too much. And they say, well, what good does the budget do if I made this budget, but I didn't follow it? What you need to do is break the budget down into workable portions. I will tend to break things down according to pay periods. Workable portions and then allocate all the money. Now, what does it mean to allocate? Basically, that means to spend the money. Now you're talking my language. You've not said much about spending money. You know what? We're not just going to spend money when we allocate money. Listen to this. You'd almost think I was a Democrat to say this. We're going to spend money before we even have it. The political party does that. Actually, both parties do that. We're going to spend the money. Now, you say, Preacher, what's going to happen? We've got to look at the plan and spend it before we have it on paper. Not literally, but on paper, so that when we get it, we know how to spend it and we're going to break that down. Now, income allocation, how to spend your money before you get paid. We touched on this last time and I want to cover it quickly again and then move on to a second method. The envelope system. As explained in the previous lesson, many, if not all, of your monthly bills can be paid through the envelope system. This is the system that I typically use. I have envelopes for just about everything, and I allocate, as I showed last time, a check for each pay period into that envelope. Everything is paid with usually two checks, except, as I explained, my car insurance, which the last time I paid that, I literally mailed in 12 different checks. The creature that was that must have wiped out the person that opened the envelope. You know, I don't know how they felt about that, but it was easy for me to understand and that's how I do it. I do it that way on a regular basis. They've never complained. They've always cashed the checks. Look at number one. The envelope system allocates your monthly payments using checks or cash, dividing each monthly bill by the number of pay periods you have each month. And we kind of went through that last time. Point two. The envelope system works best for people who have a hands-on mentality. That's like me. And they like to see their checks or their cash physically allocated to a physical place, the envelope. Well, preacher, couldn't you just leave all that money in your checking account and set up a list of funds and know what your fund balance is? Yes, we're going to talk about that in a moment. You can do that. But there are people like me, some of you maybe like me, that just like to have it where you can see it, where you've written out a check, you've put it into an envelope. The last generation knew of people who buried their money in a tin can in the backyard. Anyone familiar with that mentality? Yeah, that's right here. That mentality is right behind the pulpit. I like to know where it is. I like to see it. I like to have my hands on it. So the envelope system works best for me. Point three. A complete envelope system may be difficult for some to practice immediately because you have bills now and the system demands you pay in advance. Now this is something I didn't go into last time thoroughly enough. If your phone bill is due tomorrow, putting $25 into an envelope for next month means that you not only have to put in the $25, thank you Brother Ken, you not only have to put in the $25 for next month, but you need to pay the bill now. Therefore, you have to have enough money to pay the bill so the bill doesn't get cut off, the phone doesn't get cut off, and put the money in advance. So the envelope system may take a while to work into. Does everybody understand that? With the envelope system, you're paying some bills in advance. For example, I decided that the cost of heating fuel was going to go up, and I allocate a certain amount out of every paycheck. goes to heating fuel, natural gas for the house. And I do this year-round. It's just like the budget system the gas company has, only mine works better. I do it year-round, put a certain amount, every paycheck, just mail it in. You say, Preacher, you send the gas company money when you don't owe them money. Absolutely I do, in order to get ahead of that bill. I think it was in September or October, I looked at my balance with the gas company. It was over $900 that they had. Oh, you say preacher, but you let them use your money. Listen, I'm not worried about that. I just want to know that when the heavy heating season comes in, I'm not going to be paralyzed by a $300 or $400 bill because I've built up a little reserve. Is everybody following what I'm saying? So you've saved some money aside. In that case, I just sent it in every time they sent me a bill, though I never had anything due. I would just send the money in. That's the envelope system. Now point B, look, if you will, at the allocated spending plan, those with several incomes and many bills will benefit from the spend it on paper first method. Look at the next sheet on the back there. I have this, and I've given you a blank sheet so that you can fill this out accordingly. Now, if you'll notice, there are pay periods across the top, and I've given pay periods there, four of them, and we'll see why that is in a moment. Look at number one on your lesson outline under B. Here are the instructions as to how to use that paper. Record the income from each pay period on the income line. If you receive two checks during the same pay period, perhaps a husband and wife work and paid on the same day, for example, add them together and record that amount. So, in my case, I am paid two times per month. I would not use all four of those. Does everyone understand? I put four there because that would be probably the maximum pay periods, unless you're paid every day, which most people aren't paid that way. That would be the maximum you would have. If you and your wife both work and you're paid on the same pay period, then combine those two incomes and put them on the line. You could put the date underneath that if you wanted to do that, just to keep it all straight. Record the income from each pay period on the income line. Point two, each column represents one pay period. So if you look at the pay period lines, below that there is a column of lines with little dashes. Everybody sees those little slashes? Look below that. Each column represents one pay period, and then you determine which bill should be paid from which pay period based on the amount due and the due date. Now here's what I'm saying. Say your first pay period of the month You and your wife both get paid if you both have jobs, and it's a significant check, and you say, you know, that's the check out of which we're going to take our mortgage. And so you would put the mortgage in that first column. Later on, you say, well, there's something due at the end of the month. I'll put that in the second column for the second pay period. Does everybody follow that? And you have to work it out according to when it is due and the size of the payment so you know you're going to have enough money to live off of. Now, this prevents you from having to get way ahead of yourself to get into the system. The envelope system expects you to be current with all your bills. and to pay that first pay period ahead. Is everybody following me on this? I'm getting some funny looks out there, but the envelope system requires that. This simply requires that you allocate the funds according to when you're paid, and you set up a system, a plan, so that you know, in my first, the first paycheck I get of the month, I'm going to pay the mortgage, and you write that in. You know, there's maybe a JCPenney bill that comes later on. You say, well, I'm going to pay that with the second one, and you write that in. It's really quite simple. Look, if you will, at point three. Record the payment amount to the left of the slash, okay? Look at the first mortgage on your house. The payment amount, let's say it's $1,000. You would record that to the left of the slash. Let's say in your pay period above, you've written $2,000 for that pay period. You would record the $1,000 to the left of the slash. If you subtract 1,000 from 2,000, how much is left? It's an object question. Say it. 1,000, okay? So you would write 1,000 to the right of the slash. That is the amount of money you have left. You say, Preacher, what is that? That is the balance you can spend. Then maybe you're going to pay the electric bill. The electric bill is $100 a month. So you know you have $1,000 up here. You put $100 to the left of the slash, and then you subtract that $100 from the 1,000 up there, and you put 900 to the right of the slash. Does everyone understand that? Is everybody getting this? It's very simple. It gives you a running balance so you understand where all the money is going from that pay period. You're allocating all that money. Now you have to go through all of the different lines. Of course, you have to allocate for certain things every pay period. You're going to eat. You're going to eat. It's a guarantee. So you have to have groceries every pay period. You might want to use the envelope system for that. I'll get into that in just a moment. So you record the payment amount to the left of the slash, subtract the payment amount from the income, and record the new balance to the right of the slash. Continue the process until all the money from that period is spent. Wasn't that fun? You actually got to spend money tonight. But it's neat because you didn't really spend it. You just had the emotional thrill of spending it. You spent it all on paper. But what is really neat is this. You see where it's going before it's gone. Part of the problem is it gets gone and you don't know where it went. This way you see where it's going before it gets gone and you have a running total. Point four, incorporate the envelope system elements of that for some things where cash can be used. If you're using this system of allocation, go ahead and use that. Groceries or eating out. Let's say you budgeted $25 for eating out per week. Well, go to the bank and get that $25 in cash, put that in the envelope. Then when you go out to eat, carry the $25 with you. Well, you say, Preacher, that's not going to get us far out to eat. It'll do a lot at White Castle, let me tell you. You can really get sick at White Castle. I start choking talking about it. You can get sick at White Castle on $25. Here's why you'd want to carry cash. The temptation is to go somewhere else and spend $35 and blow your budget. If you have cash, you cannot do that. Can I tell you a little secret? Can I tell your church a little secret? I always give my wife cash to buy groceries with. Cash. Cash. She walks through the grocery store with a calculator. And she calculates what she can get and what she can't get. Why? You can never go over the budget. And she still manages to misappropriate funds. Don't think for five minutes she does it. We eat well, as you can tell. And she still manages to get a little extra money out of that. But use cash sometimes. Use that envelope system. Point five. Using this allocated spending plan means that you will maintain a large checkbook balance until you've paid your bills. Do not deviate from the plan or you won't have money for your bills. Okay? Now, I know this sounds simplistic, but there are some people who will fill this all out, they'll write it all out, and then they'll go to the bank and withdraw some money, and they'll look at that withdrawal slip, and lo and behold, they've got $2,500 in their checking account. Happy days are here again. The sky is bright and blue again. We can blow our money. No, you can't. It's already spent. Once in a while my wife will look at one of my receipts from the bank and she'll say, honey, we got plenty of money. And my answer is, dear, that money is spent. It's gone. There are checks written out on that. It's already on its way out the door. But if you, by the way, don't balance your checkbook at the ATM machine with those receipts. It doesn't work. People try to do that all the time. It does not work. You have to balance it independent of that. And then point six, both the allocated spending plan and the envelope system, or a combination of both, both requires that you balance your checkbook. Most of you do that, I know. But folks, can I tell you, you would be absolutely shocked at how many people do not, on a monthly basis, balance their checkbook. You would be shocked. Again, that is like driving your car with a sheet over the windshield where you can't see anything. I don't understand how people do that. You need to balance the checkbook every once in a while. Preacher, I don't know how to balance a checkbook, okay? Your statement comes every month. On the back of your statement, there is an instruction sheet, how to balance your checkbook. Follow the instructions carefully. Preacher, I do it and the numbers never match. You know, that is a symptom of a really serious problem. It's not just that you're not good at math. Something is gravely wrong and you need to get that corrected in order to know where you stand. If you'll follow this allocation plan, it will help you on a weekly basis to know what bills are paid that week, what money you have left, what you can spend. Does everyone see how helpful this is? It takes your monthly budget and it breaks it down into little sections that you can see on a weekly basis and it is your plan. I just hate paying the bills. It takes hours. Do you know why it takes hours? Because you let them stack up in a shoebox. If you do this, it takes a matter of a few minutes, because you know exactly what bill you're going to pay, you know you've got the money, you know you can handle it, so you take out that bill, you pay only what you've allocated money for, and all of a sudden, something that used to be a nightmare, something that used to be difficult, all it becomes is the busy work of writing a check. My checks are already written because they're all in those envelopes. All I do is open the envelopes and throw checks into other envelopes and put stamps on them. That's what I do to pay bills. You preach how long does it take? Ten minutes? And you're done. And it's absolutely painless. The only time it becomes painful is if you are disorganized. All right, quickly. The next key concept This is vital. Key concept, getting out of debt requires a plan. If you fail at the plan, you plan to fail. That is true every time. You now have your money organized, what you're going to be doing. You've allocated your funds. You say, Preacher, I have to get out of debt. Now listen carefully. You need to get out of debt. You absolutely need to. The only way you'll do it is with a plan. I'll tell you, I've dealt recently with a situation. Let me just tell you folks, do not use loans to pay off debts. Does everyone understand? Borrowing money to pay more money. I have seen people mortgage their entire future by doing so. It is a house of cards and it always comes tumbling down. Loans are not the answer. You say, Preacher, what is? Eliminating the debt quickly and psychologically. Both are important. Point A. Using the debt reduction plan form. Look at the back of your packet. You should have one of those. A debt reduction plan form. Using that form, this is a very simple form. In fact, I took a model of this and simplified it further and made this for you. It only took me seven hours to do that on the computer today. Just kidding. Using the debt reduction plan form, list your debts in order of smallest payoff balance to largest. Oh, Pastor, right away I see you're not mathematically correct. We need to be paying off the highest interest. I'm not interested in that interest when I'm interested in keeping you interested in paying off your debts. Now listen, there is something psychological about eliminating debt rapidly when you enter a program like this. The reason I want you to put the very first, the smallest debt first is you will get a quick victory or two or three quick victories within a couple months of doing this, and you'll see how it's going to work for you. If your largest debt also happens to be one that has a high interest rate, so you put that first, let's say $24,000 worth of debt, you'll become discouraged, and you'll say, oh, this thing doesn't work. It will take years, which it could at that rate. So we want to do the smallest one first, just for psychology's sake. Now if you say, well, Pastor, I can figure out mathematically, and I'll save money doing this. Okay, you do what you're going to do, But I want you to have some quick, rapid victories over certain small debts. Get rid of some of those nagging things. So this is why I've given it to you this way. Don't be concerned with interest rates at this point. Do not list your home mortgage. However, do list any liens you have against your home or second mortgage, lines of credit that you owe money on, those type of things. All of it are listed, so I've given you all those boxes to list the debts. Smallest on top, largest on the bottom. And of course, we're speaking about the balance or the payoff. Point B, pay the minimum monthly payment on all debts except the smallest. So everything's going to be just like it's been. Minimum monthly payments on everything except the smallest. Why is that? Number one, you want to pay off the smallest debt first, thereby giving you a sense of accomplishment. Well, you say, Preacher, how much money am I going to put on the smallest debt? OK, review your cash flow plan and allocated spending plan to find extra cash to put on this debt. You say, Preacher, you mean more than the minimum? Yes, more than the minimum. Now, here's what I've said in the outline. Be ruthless. You don't need cable television. Now let me explain. Indulgence got you into the mess. Sacrifice will get you out. Okay, that's really a good thought, and I just thought of that just now. Indulgence got you into the mess. Sacrifice will get you out. So it means this. I have to find every spare penny to put on this smallest debt. So let's say, well, I'll give you an example here. There's one here in the outline, so let's use that one. Point three, example. You owe Visa $100. Oh, Pastor Monty, I wish my balance were $100 with Visa. Well, this is just a dream world here. OK, but let's pretend you had a small balance. You owe Visa $100. That's your balance. The minimum monthly payment is $10. You can find an additional $20 per month to put on that bill. You cancel the cable company. There's $20. Cancel the internet service. Oh, Pastor, what would I do without internet? Talk to your wife, maybe. You know, play with the dog. Communicate with the kids. I don't know. But again, Internet is not a requirement for living. Does everyone understand this? You don't need that. In fact, a lot of us would be better off without it. So find this additional $20 per month, put it on the bill. You will pay $30 per month. until that bill is paid. You'll pay it off much more rapidly paying it at that rate. So now you're spending $30 on that bill. Once that bill is paid, look back at your debt reduction plan. Once that bill is paid, take a red magic marker and draw a line through it. Post it up on the refrigerator if you want to remind yourself of where you're at. Put it up on the refrigerator, draw a line through it. Oh good preacher, wow, I paid off that bill and hallelujah, I freed up $30 extra a month. Let's go out to eat. No, that's not what we're doing. But you are correct. You have now freed up 30 extra dollars a month, .4. Once that debt is paid, you have freed up an additional $30 per month to apply to the next debt on the list. Now remember, you have been paying the minimum monthly payment on the next debt. If that debt has a minimum payment of, let's say, $25, You will add the 30 to the 25, equaling 55, and you will pay $55 a month until the next is paid off. Is everybody following me on this? You're taking all that extra money, and you're not spending it, but you're putting it on the next debt. With each debt you pay off, the amount you can commit to the next debt increases. Remember, you've been making the monthly payments on these debts all along. Now you're paying much more. You say, preacher, what will happen? Initially, it will be slow. In about the middle of your process, your payoff will snowball at such a rapid rate because you keep adding more money to it, you'll begin paying things off much more rapidly than you ever dreamed possible and far more rapidly than you ever would have paid them off had you paid the minimum monthly payments. There are certain credit agreements that are designed in relationship to their interest rate to never get paid off if you make only the minimum payment. Sears, Roebuck & Company. Pastor, it's a department store. No it isn't. It's a financing outfit. They have made their money on the $10 a month, anything at Sears, $10 per month. That is how they've made their money. And you'll pay that $10 a month for the rest of your life. And if 5 million Americans are paying $10 a month for the rest of their lives, Sears is in really, really good shape. Does everybody follow me? They hook you on that small amount, and then you end up never paying it off. All right. You'll commit more money to each debt as it's paid off. It will snowball rapidly. Preacher, what are some tips for working the plan? Here we go. Number one, stay inspired. Paying off little debts first allows you to see quick progress. Even though the initial victories are little, they are more than what you'd be doing without a plan. Honestly, folks, if you have a balance of $150, don't just pay the $10 and carry that for a year and a half. You know why? The credit card that you have $150 on, in a year and a half, you may charge more. Now, by the way, by the way, I'll get this in a minute, but it's on the tip of my tongue. When you're doing this, you can't be charging more. Oh, preacher, I paid off that credit card. That means I can go ring it up again. You know, that's how Americans think. You must be committed to never using credit. You have to commit. You have to say, I'm not doing it. You have to look at credit cards as poison. You have to look at credit. And there's a proper use of them. I understand it. But you have to look at the idea of borrowing money and using money borrowed. And you just stay away from it. Stay inspired by getting little victories first. Point two, just say no to debt. There it is. It is essential that you not accumulate any additional debt. Additional debt will derail your progress. Use your emergency fund for real emergencies and learn to say no to the rest. Remember that $1,000? Hey, does everybody see why that $1,000 is so important? Does everybody see that? Because you're going to need money. And if you don't have some money set aside, all of a sudden $1,000 becomes a crisis. Again, I just don't have a thousand dollars. You know, nobody has a thousand dollars that they can just pull out of their hat pretty much. I mean, most people don't have that. But you do have stuff you could sell if you were serious enough about this. That's a radical idea. You know, a lot of people make over a thousand dollars in a yard sale. It's unbelievable what some women make when they have a yard sale. Absolutely unbelievable. You can do that. Maybe you have guns or some sporting equipment. Oh boy, I'm treading on They're nice when I talk about that. But you haven't used that thing. You know you're never going to use it. You haven't used it in eight. Now keep one gun around for the bad guys, okay? I'm pro-gun. Keep one gun around for the bad guys. But you've got 25 other guns. Look, if you can sell them at a profit, sell them to get this $1,000 together so that you don't have to lean on credit. The whole idea is to wean you off of credit. But because things take place in our lives, don't they? Unexpected things happen all the time. Because they take place, if you're dependent on credit, you'll keep using it. It will derail your debt elimination plan, and you'll become discouraged with it. Point three. Never use newly freed up cash for anything except the reduction of the next debt. You can celebrate only after your debt reduction plan is complete. Oh, honey, we had a $65 phone bill and I finally paid it off. Let's take our 30 extra dollars and go out to eat. No. No. That is the mentality that got you into trouble. You have to say no to yourself. You've got to do that. So use it to pay debt. Point four, review your plan regularly and rejoice in your progress. Do not become discouraged if it seems slow at first. It will snowball very quickly. In fact, if you were to do this and eliminate all consumer debt, you could take that very significant payment, and if you have a car payment, you could add it to that payment and pay off your car very, very rapidly. You know, you say, oh, preacher, if I was out from under that $400 a month car payment, and if I was out from under this $300 a month of consumer credit stuff I'm paying, boy, if I had an extra $700 a month, boy, I could really have a good time. You know what you could do? You would be amazed at how fast you'd pay your house off. Amazed. Absolutely amazed. Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing? for people in this church to pay off all their consumer debt, pay off all their cars, and pay off their house? Wouldn't that be one of the richest possible? Absolutely it's possible, but it's possible only through careful discipline. So, be careful how you spend money, but look at your progress as you're making progress. Whenever possible, accelerate your plan by adding any extra money to the debt payment you're trying to eliminate. Any small windfalls, a tax return, a gift, or something like that should be applied to debt elimination. Well, Pastor, what about partying and having a good time? You don't do that until everything else is paid off. Now listen, listen. I know I'm presenting a radical concept. I am so radical on this that I think, you know, and I think it's over with, but if you can't afford Christmas, then don't have it. That's how radical I am. Well, a preacher, what are we going to do for the kids? You can figure out some small thing to do for the kids. But it's good for kids to learn sometimes a little bit of restraint. Mom and Dad, if you will take this plan or a plan similar to this and get radically serious about paying off your indebtedness and radically serious about not spending money. Do you know there's people who should never buy a cup of coffee? because it costs too much to buy it at the gas station or at the Starbucks, or as Jack Lautenschlager calls it, the five bucks. I guess that's more accurate, really. Because they've got debts they're not paying off. Never buy a pack of gum if your debts are not paying off. I preach and that's radical. I know that's radical. But you know, it is indulgence that always gets us into our problem. It is only sacrifice that will get us out. Now, when I get to this, people say, I don't want to sacrifice, so I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing, which means head in the sand. May I tell you something? That is a house of cards that on the authority of experience that I have seen, that is a house of cards that will crumble to the ground. Thinking of an example right now of Some folks of which I'm aware who took borrowed money and went on vacations with it. Borrowed money and did this and that and the other thing. Lived high. No one would ever think they had financial problems. And the house of cards begins to tumble. It begins to come down. I used to preach, when does it come down? It might not come down until you're in your 60s. And what an awful time to have the house of cards tumble down. Being a wise and careful steward now will save you a lot of pain later. So the lesson tonight is simple. Allocate your money. Take your monthly budget, your monthly cash flow plan we discussed last week. Allocate your money to make your payments, whether you use the envelope system as I do primarily or want to use an allocated spending plan as I've given you here. Make it so that it is practical so you can relate to it on a weekly basis or on the basis of when you are paid every two weeks, whatever it may be. and then begin your debt reduction plan, and the key is starting with the smallest debt, whatever the minimum payment of that debt is, you must make that minimum payment along with all the others, and you must find some extra money to add to the minimum payment. Preacher, there's not a dime extra, there's not a dime left. You know what I would do if I was in that case? I'd get a second job. I know, that's radical. My dad worked two jobs his entire life. that I knew him. I never knew my dad not to work two jobs. Never knew my dad not to work two jobs. It's not radical when you're trying to accomplish something. Dave Ramsey puts it best when he says this, if you will live now like nobody else, later on you can live like nobody else. Does everyone understand that? If you live now like nobody else, I'm not going to drive a rattled down car. if you'll live now like nobody else. See, everybody, did you know every American, every American, do you know that you have a constitutional right to a brand new car? To watch those car advertisements, you'd think so, wouldn't you? It's not your constitutional right to have a brand new car. It may be best to drive around in something that's way less than, quote unquote, desirable, so that you can position yourself for a better future. You know, in American culture, the biggest problem we have is indulgence now. Immediate gratification, we've got to have it now. We've got to have the latest thing, the best thing, the finest thing, the nicest thing. We've got to have it now. Do you know our parents never thought that way? My parents never thought that way. My, close this illustration, my parents growing up, We lived in a middle class home. My father was criticized by people for spending too much money on his first house. $17,500. He was criticized. That was a horrendous amount of money to spend on a house. And we lived in a nice home and had ample food. We had one car and then finally mom learned how to drive and we got a second car. Does anyone remember the days when a lot of ladies didn't know how to drive? Sure, that was the background I came from. and got a second car and all those things. Slowly but surely, we had these things, and over time, we had the little old Zenith black and white TV. It wasn't until the 80s we had a color TV. It wasn't until the 80s. And over time, all of these things were added. Do you know what amazed me? It wasn't long before I was out of college when I was living at nearly the same level that my parents were living at, and they had taken all that time to get there. Now, you say, preacher, how did that happen? Some of it happened as a young kid charging things. Paid those all off years ago. But, you know, you're entitled as a kid, aren't you? I mean, come on. I just graduated from Bible college. I'm entitled to anything I want. Baloney. It's the entitlement mentality that has killed us as Americans. And if we'll get that away from our thinking and be willing to sacrifice and live... You know, preacher, people will criticize me. It's ridiculous. Don't worry what other people say. You live within your means and make your plans for the future, and you'll be glad one day that you did. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your goodness to us tonight. Help us, Lord, to so order our finances that we can truly take no thought of these issues, because they'll all be taken care of. Father, thank you for your provision for us. Make us good stewards of your provision, and help us, Lord, to be cautious with that which you've entrusted to us. Bless this life, people. Make us faithful in these things, we pray it in Jesus' name, Amen.